Cricket legend Shane Warne has called for calm after reports over the weekend that sightings of scary-looking clowns, similar to incidents in the United States in recent months, have now spread to Australia.

“I can understand the confusion but I didn’t mean to scare anyone,” he said. “I was just heading home after a big weekend on whatever I could get my hands, lungs, and nose on.”

Warne added that he didn’t even realise he was scaring people until he connected the dots between some “epic benders” and the suburb names and dates of reported clown sightings in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.

“The zinc does smudge a bit after a dozen tins,” he said.